The hundreds of people who enjoy free hot meals each day at Merle Hatleberg's Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa aren't "the homeless," "clients" or "the poor."

They are, and have been for the 21 years since Merle started the soup kitchen, her guests.

Merle, who was 83 when she died May 31, saw only the goodness in people. She perceived their needs, preserved their dignity and made her mission in life to help the under-served.

She came by that mission naturally.

Her father, a farmer and Baptist minister, died when she was young and her mother ran a boarding house for coal miners. Merle grew up packing their lunches and doing their ironing.

She joined the Women's Army Corps in 1944 and met her husband, Maynard, at March Air Force Base near Riverside. They were married in 1946 and had eight children.

In 1955, while serving in the Korean War, Maynard suffered a severe head injury. Merle had to ask the Red Cross for money to fly to Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. to see him.

From Walter Reed he went to Wisconsin and never returned to California.

Merle moved to Huntington Beach to raise her children, worked two jobs and started volunteering for the Red Cross, knowing she had to give back to the agency that had helped her.

One of her jobs was in the Angels Stadium kitchen, which turned her into a hard-core Angels fan. Until the day she died, she could cite the stats for nearly every player on the team.

Her other job was as a site manager at the Feedback Foundation's Rea Community Center in Costa Mesa, which served meals to seniors. When schoolchildren came to the kitchen door asking for food, Merle was told she couldn't give them anything - that the funding was for seniors only.

That's when Merle spent $600 of her own money to rent the center's kitchen for an hour each afternoon to make soup to give away. She started the program on her 63rd birthday, making soup at the kitchen and distributing it at various churches.

Soon after, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. Then, because she had osteoporosis, she shattered her femur so badly she had to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life. But none of this deterred her from her mission to serve her guests.

Forthright and determined, she knocked on doors for donations and was eventually able to buy a former Chinese restaurant on West 19th Street in Costa Mesa, where Someone Cares Soup Kitchen operates now, serving more than 100,000 meals a year. Among her financial backers has been South Coast Plaza partner Anton Segerstrom.

Everyone is welcome. No proof of need is required.

When a volunteer complained that a man who'd arrived in a brand new truck came in to eat, Merle said, "Honey, you never know. He might be living in that truck. If people come here, it's because they need to."

It was her hope, she said, that social conditions would improve so much that one day she'd open the doors and find no one needing free meals.

For her efforts, she earned countless awards over the years, including the Clara Barton Award and a Presidential Point of Light. Nine Orange County Register Charities awards hang on her office wall.

Spunky and full of life, she kept her sense of humor - and her devotion to the Angels - to the very end.

When her doctor came to visit shortly before she died, Merle was watching an Angels game. "You're late," she told him. It's already the fifth inning."

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.